2017 Masters Odds and Our Expert Picks

First Look at 2017 Masters Odds and Our Picks

With the field set for the 2017 Masters tournament, we are finally ready to take a look at Vegas’ odds for the tournament. Big surprise, there are four very familiar names at the top of the favorites pile:

Dustin Johnson – The world’s number one player has three straight wins and has been in the top 6 in 6 of his last 7 starts. The guy is just on fire, seems virtually unbeatable, but has never been higher that T-4 at the Masters. Is this the year, or is a green jacket simply not in the cards for Dustin?

Jordan Spieth – There is a reason Spieth contends in every major he starts. When every golfer brings his best, Jordan’s is just better. He’s the rare combination of ball striker/scrambler/putter that we haven’t seen since the late 90’s/early 2000’s.

Rory McIlroy – Look who is rounding into form just in time for this year’s first major… Rory has 5 top 10 finishes in his last 6 events this season, and that includes a weekend at the Arnold Palmer that saw him go 65, 69 for a T4 finish. Rory will almost certainly be in the mix on Sunday.

Jason Day – Most people would look at Day’s 2017 season results and say it’s been a down year… I say he’s due. This guy is just too good to keep down, and is an absolute proven winner. Has found success here in the past, but has never won. Think his mom’s health will weight on him? We all know that Day is the most mentally tough golfer on the planet, and if anything he will allow those emotions to fuel him this week.

Our Pick to Win: Jordan Spieth

Not sure how anyone could pick against Jordan at the Masters. He is the closest thing to dominate-Tiger we have ever seen, and never is that clearer than Masters week. It’s the first major of the year, clearly Jordan’s favorite tournament, and he just grinds from hole 1-to-72. By now, we all know that Jordan will likely be the best putter and scrambler in the field this week. Those three traits alone allow him to hang around through Sunday, and if he’s on he’s arguably the best ball striker in the field which gives you a week where he is up 4-5 strokes after the third round. There is a reason this guy has gone runner-up, win, runner-up in the past three years, including last season’s collapse which really should have been consecutive wins.

Our Favorite Sleeper: Tommy Fleetwood

We were all set to give Jon Rahm as our sleeper, but at the time of writing this article he has the same odds as Jason Day. That effectively removes him from the sleeper category, and makes him a terrible bet. When given the choice of Jason Day or Jon Rahm at a major, you take Jason Day every single time. Another player I really liked as a sleeper, Brandt Snedeker, who kills courses he loves (see Cali swing and the Masters every single year), has odds slightly better than what I would consider a sleeper at +5000.

Moving our way down the player odds, one number that jumps out to me is Fleetwood at +8000. Fleetwood won earlier this season in Abu Dhabi, was the runner-up in Mexico, but it was his top 10 finish at the Arnold Palmer that caught our eye. The number one player on the European Tour, Fleetwood put up the second lowest score on Sunday at the Arnold Palmer to vault his way into the top 10. If he can carry that momentum into this week, he is a player that has proven his ability to win on tour. That being said, Willett’s win last year was the first by a European golfer in 18 years so odds stacked against golfers like Fleetwood, Pieters, Rahm, and company.

Our Favorite Prop Bet: A Masters Rookie Will Win

At 6:1, this one doesn’t have great odds in the world of prop bets, but we genuinely do like this rookie class which includes: Jon Rahm, Thomas Pieters, Tommy Fleetwood, Alex Noren, Tyrell Hatton, Adam Hadwin, Billy Hurley, and Curtis Luck.

Best Action: Top Five and Top Ten Finish

One of our favorite bets for Masters week are the top 5 and top 10 odds. This if for you fantasy golf fanatics that have gotten really good at picking that sleeper who is going to contend all week, or may be poised to steal a backdoor top 10 finish…

Top 5 Finish Pick: Marc Leishman at +1300 – You have to love the way this guy is putting the ball this season, and how that translates to Augusta. Leishman is coming off from a win at our favorite Masters-primer event, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and is currently 10th in the FedEx standings with 4 top 10’s, 6 top 20’s and only one fish outside of the top 27.

Top 10 Finish Pick: Bill Haas at +800 – The problem with these top 10 bets is that in order to get good odds you have to take a bad player, and even then you aren’t getting great odds. So, do you want to take Bill Haas a solid lock to finish in the top 25 and hope that he quietly backdoors a top 10 finish on Sunday, or do you roll the dice with a roller coaster like Vegas or Na and hope that they hit enough fairways and their putters get hot from 15′-25′?

I don’t hate Na, he actually currently leads the tour in putting from 15-25 feet, but I love the approach Bill Haas takes to a tournament. He’s just going to stack up pars, score where he can, hang around for four days and hope to be in contention on Sunday. He will never push, rarely makes a bad decision on the course, can scramble, is top 10 in scoring average, and has 7 top 25 finishes in 9 starts.

More Masters Coverage to Come

Keep an eye out for continued Masters coverage all week including a look into our favorite WITB from this week’s field, and our daily fantasy guide which should release sometime tomorrow afternoon.